Harm Reduction Efforts Across the Triangle

It’s Wednesday, March 27.

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Good morning, readers. 

Last fall, we published a story from Duke student journalist Charlotte Kramon and our partners at The Assembly about a UNC student’s overdose death on Duke’s campus. Following trials in federal court, two Durham residents were found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to 29 and 28 years in prison. 

The death of the student, 19-year-old Elizabeth Grace Burton, brought a fresh look at the issue of drug use on the Triangle’s college campuses and the risks to young people of overdosing on drugs that could be cut with fentanyl. Following Grace’s death, her friends and other students were motivated to advocate for harm reduction strategies on campus in hopes of preventing more drug-related deaths among college students. 

At UNC, the group Carolina Harm Reduction works to distribute—and educate students and campus groups on how to administer—naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. It’s a better, more realistic approach than teaching abstinence to young people, students say, and experts, while they generally see drug use as being problematic, say the approach is effective and reduces the stigma toward people who use illegal drugs. 

In 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 51,435 people died due to unintentional drug overdose. Of those, 65 percent had at least one potential opportunity for their death to be prevented. Other groups in the Triangle, such as Duke’s Harm Reduction Research Collaboratory and Remedy Alliance / For the People are working to spread awareness of harm reduction strategies and ensure access to naloxone across the state. 

“We don’t think there’s one prescribed way to tell somebody to live their life,” says Hillary Chen, a research coordinator in the Duke University Population Health Sciences Department. “We think it’s just really important for people to have the resources to be safe.”

Have a good Wednesday. 

–Jane

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